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The College News
VOL. XXIII, No. 11
BRYN MAWR AND WAYNE, PA., WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1937 ^^{S^^BwsflST1 PRICE 10 CENTS
V
A. S. U. Emphasizes
Action Necessary
In Avoiding War
\ ______
World Peafee Forces Must Join
In Effort Toward Security
For A11 Nations
STUDENT RESPONSIBLE
AS INTERNATIONALIST
The necessity of all progressive
forees for uniting to preserve peace
and freedom was the keystone for dis-
cussion held during the second na-
tional conference of A. S. U. chapters.
Approximately 300 delegates met in'
Chicago on December 28, 29 and 30.
Bryn Mawr was represented by Ber-
tha Goldstein, '38, and Agnes Spencer,
'39. Round table discussions on such
subjects as student cooperatives and
anti-war measures as well as ad-
dresses by outside speakers were in-
cluded in the session.
The*" student's responsibility as an
internationalist was emphasized when
greetings were extended by Chinese,
Mexican and Spanish delegates agree-
ing with this idea. Policies were
established concerning peace -which
recommended uniting with all peace
forces in the world in collective secur-
ity. In addition the Oxford Pledge,
refusing to support -any war under-
taken by the government, was en-
dorsed.
, John Lewis, unable to appear, sent
in his speech, which stressed the stu-
dents' close affiliation with the prog-
ress of labor. Jerome Davis, recently
ousted liberal Yale professor, urged
that academic freedom be protected
against the inroads of Fascism.
As far as immediate activity is
concerned, it was voted that a mass
trip to Washington be planned for
February 19. At this time A. S. U.
members will lobby for the passage of
the American Youth Act, which is
an enlargement of the National Youth
Act now in effect.
Further aspects of the conference
will be discussed by the delegates at
a meeting of the Bryn Mawr chapter.
The stressing of intra-ca/ipus activi-
ties with other organizations, the need
for political education and the open-
ing of a "Spanish drive" on the cam-
pus are some of the plans being for-
mulated as a result of the conference.
COLLEGE CALENDAR
Thursday, January 7.�Inter-
national Club tea. Mrs. Mil-
dred Chapman will speak. Com-
mon Room, 4 p. m.
A. S. U. Meeting. Common
Room, 7.30 p. m.
Dr. Erwin R. Goodenough will
speak on Jewish Art in Roman
and Byzantine Times. Music
Room, 8.30 p. m.
Friday,. January 8. � Miss
Woodworth will present a vic-
trola recital of T. S. Eliot's
work. Music Room, 5 p. m.
Saturday, January 9. � Phi-
losophy Club meeting. Dr. Kurd.
Goldstein will speak on Cortical
Function. Music Room, 8.30
p. m.
Sunday, January 10.� Dra-
matic recital of Die Meister-
singer "by Florence Fraser.
Deanery, B p. m.
Monday, January 11. � Miss
Agnes Mongan, '27, will speak
on .Museum Work. Common
Room, 4.30 p. m.
Tuesday, January 12. � Non-
resident tea.
Mr. Karl Anderson will speak
on Currency Stabilization. Com:
mon Room, 7.30 p. m.
Wednesday, January IS.�In-
dustrial Gr6up supper. Mr.
William Jeanes will speak on
Workers' Housing. Common
Room, 6.30 p. m.
Maids' Dance Gratifies
Rhythm-Loving Audience
High Point of Dance Program is
Whittaker's Tapping
Field Trips Initiated
In Social Economics
Labor Movements Class Tours
SKF Ball-Hearing Company,
Steel Corporations '
SETTLEMENTS VISITED
Field trips, a phrase often heard
in connection with geology courses, js
no longer limited in its application,
but is now an essential part of courses
in several departments. The Social
Economy Department, in particular,
considers field trips necessary as a
definite course of activity wherever
books prove insufficient for knowledge
of existing conditions.
Recently, Miss Mildred Fairchild's
class in Labor Movements visited the
SKF Ball-bearing Company in Phila-
delphia and the Allen-Wood Steel Cor-
poration in Conshohocken in connec-
tion with the study of factories and
labor condition's.
*^iss Hertha Kraus's class in So-
cial'Welfare visited the Heart Hospi-
tal in Philadelphia, the University
Settlement, the Southwark Settlement
and the Eastern Penitentiary. The
students who have gone on these trips
were impressed by the vivid pictures
and greater understanding which they
gathered from this first hand con-
tact with the problems which they are
studying in the class room.
Several students in Mr. Herbert
Vocational Tea
Miss Agnes Mongan, Research As-
sistant at the Fogg Art Museum at
Cambridge, will speak on Museum
Work in the Common Room Monday
afternoon, January 11, at 4.45. All
those who are interested are cordially
invited to attend. Tea.will be served
at 4.30. -
Spiritual Peace Mark
Basis of Bahai Religion
Miss Root, Journalist, Describes
Progressive Doctrine
Perhaps it was the rainy weather
which limited the number of people
who watched the Maids' and Porters'
annual dance in the gymnasium on
December 16. Even though the at-
tendance was low, the dancing was as
rhythmic and complicated as ever.
The music, furnished by Marcell Les-
sing and his orchestra, spurred on
the feet and spirits of both dancers
and spectators. Towards the end of
the evening two lucky number dances
and well applauded exhibitions with
partners were conducted. John Whit-
taker, inimitable and versatile soloist
of Denbigh, performed some of his
delightful tap dances.
Eleanor Taft, '39, was in charge of
the d^nce, assisted by Dorothy Rich-
ardson, '39.
Blind Students Taught Self-Confidence
To Surmount Overwhelming Handicaps
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Overbrook School Curriculum
Includes Manual Training,
Social Service
- Night gives a peculiarly mediaeval
atmosphere to the Blind School. We
step from the warm modernity of the
Overbrook bus into the past, walk by
high walls, grilled gates and come
suddenly to a Spanish palace with the
moon faintly gilding its dome. We
look up at the dome, down through a
neat, varniahed door at an operator
sitting behind a desk; and up again,
trying to recreate an aura of roman-
ticism�and failing. The present, al-
ways at war with the past, has won.
It leads us victoriously to the opera-
tor, who being blind, waits for us to
speak. She is wonderfully deft, mov-
ing her hands over the plugs in front
of her with unhesitating skill. Some-
times she reads a book, a thick lens
in her eye, moving a light, letter by
letter, over the large print.
But our mission is still unfulfilled.
We are assigned to different people,
led to different rooms. We may read
Ivanhoe to the boy's literature class;
one of the boys can see well enough
to read slowly to himself, and he races
as jirith evident pride.
We may dictate laboriously from a
book on textiles to a girl who is tak-
ing notes in Braille. She can see, but
is sparing her eyes as much as pos-
sible. She clamps a metal plate on
thick paper and punches down
rthrough holes in it with a stylus, writ-
ing backwards, of course, so that when
the paper is turned over it will be
covered with small raised dots. They
are arranged in different symbols,
each symbol corresponding either to
a letter or to a whole word.
We hope most of all, though, that
we will be assigned to Miss Dinsmore,
with her Seeing Eye dog, Cleo. Cleo
seems still to be in the period of train-
ing, she dashes ahead, pulling Miss
Dinsmore after her, forgetting to sit
down before steps, and being gently
reprimanded by one with unseeing
eyes, who knows by long experience
where the steps will be. We follow
them through the dim cloisters into
the past again, and back to the pres-
ent to a cozy room, with Miss Dins-
mbre on a couch, leaning back against
the wall, knitting, and Cleo lying
alertly at her feet. Sometimes she
thinks she has dropped a stitch and
hands to the knitting to "us. "It looks
all right," we say, and give it back
to her.
"All right? I wasn't quite sure."
When the bell rings she feels the
hands of her wrist watch for the
time.
If we turn to the administration of
the Blind School, we find that its pur-
pose is entirely educational. Its cur-
riculum, followed for the most 4�art
by children who have been blind from
birth, extends from kindergarten to
the third year of high school, includ-
ing practical courses like manual
training and music. The school also
provides for older people who have be-
come blind through illness. M. R. M.
in
Miller's classes attended the Folk
Festival at the Academy of Music in
order to compare the culture patterns
of the 12 nationalities that were rep-
resented on the stage. It was dis-
covered that one of the Norwegian
folk dances was imported from Po-
land and that one of the Greek melo-
dies had been carried over into the
Russian folk songs, in this way illus-
trating the spread and fusion of
various culture patterns.
In connection with the study of
religions, these pupils also attended
services in various churches in the
city. On these trips, the students
travel in a social level with which
some are unfamiliar, and see for
themselves almost as many foreign
traits on this side of the Atlantic
Ocean as can be found on the other
side.
Mrs. Use Forest feels that for
as vital a subject as education, field
trips are a necessary supplement to
class work. �' Her students have vis-
ited the Germantown Friends' School,
(the South Philadelphia High School
for Girls, and the Friends' Central
School. The value of these visits lies
in the renewal of familiarity with the
methods of teaching in the lower
schools after having lost this contact
for as long as four years.
The class in Educational Psycho-
logy has also observed groups of chil-
dren at the Bryn Mawr School *and
the Bryn Mawr Educational Clinic
being tested for defects and educa-
tional achievement
Taylor Hall, Room B, December 16.
�Miss Martha Root, journalist and
member of the Bahai religion, outlinuil
before Mr. Miller's class in Social
Anthropology the major points of the
religious movement stared by Baha'
u'llah in Persia about 1868.
The founder of the new creed was
a Mohammedan, but he rejected the
principles of his own religion to teach
the unity of all beliefs. Baha'u'llah
promulgated a doctrine of emancipa-
tion for women, universal peace, un-
restricted education and a great
league of nations. He taught his fol-
lowers to believe in all the prophets
from Zoroaster to Mohammed because
by the revelations of all the prophets
the civilization of the world moves
forward. In defense of these prin-
ciples he spent many years in prison
and was finally executed.
The religious movement continued,
lowcver, and is led today by his great-
grandson, Shogi Effendi. In America
many converts have been made and
religious committees are established in
all large cities. -
Dr. Powell Analyses
Perilous Position
of Supreme Court
Its Veto Should be on Grounds
Of Policy, Not Based Literally
On Constitution
CURBING OF COURTS'
POWER IS EXPLAINED
Self-Gov of Nineties
Troubled by Banjos
Chaperones Were "Decidedly" in
Order for Theatre
COUNT NEUDEGG GIVES
FIRST SKIING LESSON
Gymnasium, January B.�Count
Walter Neudegg, of Salzburg, met a
large group of students for the first
of a series'of ten lessons in skiing
technique which will be given every
Tuesday night at 9. The lessons are
free, and the athletic department
hopes that everyone interested in ski-
ing will take advantage of them.
Count Neudegg is himself a skiing
expert, and has taught in the Tyrol,
Switzerland and Italy. When there
is snow he will come on week-ends to
demonstrate and help students in ac-
tual practice, and if there is enough
interest, will organize trips to the
Poconos.
Mrs. Chapman, Recipient of Peace
Prize, to Speak
Members of the International Re-
lations Club will be the guests of Mrs.
Frederick Manning at tea in the Com-
mon Room this Thursday. Mrs. Mil-
dred Chapman, the recipient of the
Peace Scholarship of American Wom-
en's Clubs Overseas, will speak.
The chief problems which con-
cerned the Self-Government Board in
the "gay nineties" seemed to be: con-
trol of noise, which included "much
trouble caused by playing banjos in
quiet hours": other regulations conj-
quiet hours." Other regulations com-
pelled students to wear their "hair
hanging only when securely tied or
braided," to be otherwise neatly
dressed, and decreed that "theatre,
etc., in the evening with a man is de-
cidedly to be chaperoned." .
Teas in the hall had to "be very
carefully chaperoned," and Broad
Street Station�hardly a spot for mad
cap gaiety�was the only place where
a student might lunch or dine in town
unchaperoned. As a great concession
it was admitted that "through cour-
tesy to their hostess" students might
be forced to break chaperonage rules,
but this act of leniency is followed
closely by this stern if somewhat
naive sentence: "Going away from
college with the express purpose of
breaking a rule is directly contrary
to the spirit of~the association."
It is in the.question of dress that
the board was really severe with our
simple sisters of the nineties. "No
fancy dress shall be worn in the din-
ing room" (discouraging all Tyrolean
suits evidently). And on Sunday
morning "students shall not go off
campus before dinner without hats."
But what made us feel most sorry for
our regimented forerunners was this
statement: "No men's clothes, bathing
caps (what is particularly offensive
about a bathing cap?), or bloomers
shall be worn by the students on the
campus or in the public parts of the
halls, at any time, without being com-
pletely covered." Athletics, it seems,
must have been a rather muffled up
affair.
A rather surprising rule is this
one: "flowers or branches may not be
taken in large quantities from the
surrounding country without direct
permission." Has the aesthetic sense
of Bryn Mawrters become less keen
in the last thirty years so that the
rule is no longer necessary, or did
this rule combat some particularly
up-and-coming undergraduate who
had improved the ^shining hours by
Continued on Pace Three
Taylor Hall, December 16.�Taking
"Constitutional Problems of Roose-
velt's Second Term" for his topic, Dr.
Thomas Reed Powell, newly elected
President of the American Political
Science Association and Langdell Pro-
fessor of Law at Harvard, addressed
the politics classes on Wednesday, De-
cember 10, in Room F, Taylor.
'The message from Cambridge,"
said Dr. Powell, "is that the Supreme
Court is in a precarious position, and
will lose all power unless it behaves
as decenf people."
A brief resume of English Consti-
tutional history and its curbing of au-
tocracy led into a discussion of Ameri-
ca's autocracy�the Supreme Court,
and the branding of "Nine Old Men"
as a "shameful Ijpok." The only way
to deal with autocracy, Dr. Powell
quoted, is to curb it. Although four
of the men do not count, the veto of
the Supreme Court, like that of the
English House of Lords, or the Presi-
dent, ought to be a veto on ground of
policy, not because of their own views
on the policy, and not as a literal in-
terpretation of the constitutional
wording.
The present job of the Supreme
Court as regarding its own existence,
is to take such action as to forestall
legislation designed to curb its power.
A review of the decisions of the
past few years explained the present
talk of curbing the court's power.
Only two major policies were ac-
cepted, and these not wholeheartedly,
namely the Gold Clause and the T. V.
A. There were two unanimous dis-
sents, the N. R. A. and the- Farm
Mortgage Act. On the Railway Pen-
sion Act, the Municipal Bankruptcy
Act, The Guffey Coal Act, and the
A. A. A., there were 5-4 or C-3 vetoes.
Since the election, the court has
been better. Mr. Justice Owen Rob-
erts, on the Working Men's Compen-
sation Act, came over to the liberals,
and the vote was 4-4, due to Clark's
illness. It is questionable, said Dr.
Powell, whether Justice Roberts has
learned something, is capable of a
"sensible idea himself," or whether
he has been coerced by the election
results. If the latter, Dr. Powell fe/fcls
his liberal attitude will not remaii
Continued on Page Three
Public Affairs School
Offers Scholarships
College Graduates May Receive
Apprenticeship Training
The National Institute of Public
Affairs has announced that it will
again extend scholarships for Federal
Government interne training to ap-
proximately thirty candidates. Not
only is this program intended to be
useful tor those who propose to enter,
public affairs, but.it will be practic-
ally applicable for business men and
teachers of social sciences.
The course, covering a full academic
year, will include experience as un-
salaried assistants to Federal Govern-
ment officials; weekly discussions with
legislators, press correspondents^usi-
ness men and others related to cur-
rently important problems; individual
supervision, and in some cases gradu-
ate seminars, in government.
To be eligible, a candidate must have
a bachelor'8 degree from a recognized
college where he achieved a high scho-
lastic standing. An endorsement of
candidacy signed by the head of the
last institution attended should ac-
company all applications. These may
be obtained from the Scholarship Com-
mittee, National Institute of Public
Affairs, 400 Investment Building,
Washington, D. C All applications
must be received by March 16.
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